Navy tank transport ship sailors to get their due from nation

Monday

Jul 28, 2008 at 12:01 AMJul 28, 2008 at 10:38 AM

On Easter Sunday morning, 1945, Peter Leasca rode aboard a Landing Ship, Tank or LST carrying men and armored vehicles onto the heavily defended beaches of Okinawa just 340 miles from the Japanese mainland.

Chris Bergeron

On Easter Sunday morning, 1945, Peter Leasca rode aboard a Landing Ship, Tank or LST carrying men and armored vehicles onto the heavily defended beaches of Okinawa just 340 miles from the Japanese mainland.

Throughout that day, the then-20-year-old naval medical corpsman witnessed "fierce fighting" from Japanese defenders and a Kamikaze slamming into the battleship USS New Mexico, killing 30 sailors and setting it ablaze.

Four-and-a-half months later, Japan surrendered and a year after that Leasca returned home, attended college, married and raised four children while working as a stockbroker.

If all goes as planned, the 83-year-old veteran from Worcester, Mass., and his shrinking "Band of Brothers" who served on amphibious vessels will be thanked by the U.S. government for their service during World War II.

Recognition has been a long time coming.

World War II veterans, like Howard Rouse and Rosario George Puliafico, who served aboard LSTs or similar craft, are grateful for the belated recognition but hope the honors extend to those in all branches who lost their lives defending their country.

"LSTs and ships like them were the keys to victory. But a lot of guys lost their lives," said Rouse, a Framingham, Mass., resident who retired after 40 years in broadcasting. "I think what they did shortened the war. I think they should be recognized."

With an estimated 1,025 World War II veterans dying every day, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, Leasca is getting closer to winning his last battle to earn recognition for the men who served aboard amphibious landing craft.

"Guys like us are a vanishing group," said Leasca. "We're in our twilight years."

On the floor of the U.S. Congress, Rep. James McGovern, D-Worcester, will call for a vote tomorrow on a resolution he authored with input from naval veterans to honor all who served aboard amphibious landing craft in World War II, Korea, Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm through 2002.

McGovern predicts the bill, House Resolution 1316, will pass and be sent to the Senate and the president for confirmation.

McGovern said veterans, like Leasca, Rouse and Puliafico, "who served on these LSTs are true American heroes."

"They fought for this country in some of the most decisive battles in our history. And they deserve to be recognized," he said.

McGovern added the vote was scheduled for this month so it would precede the LST veterans' annual convention in Washington, D.C., in August.

He credited Leasca for "really educating me" and congressional colleagues about the contributions and sacrifices made by those who served aboard amphibious vehicles. U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, D-Quincy, is also one of the resolution's sponsors.

Decades after the war's end, Leasca fought a successful rearguard action to honor his martial colleagues and return to the U.S. the 64-year-old LST-325 from Greece, where it served the Greek navy for 20 years.

For years he's been one of the most active members and former president of the Amphibious Veterans of Massachusetts.

Leasca said the 328-foot-long LSTs lacked modern amenities but inspired loyalty from the crews of about 120 men who served aboard them.

Waxing nostalgically, he recalled living on his LST as it wove the arduous voyage through the Panama Canal, into submarine-infested waters and on to Hawaii.

"We went up and down, rocked left and right. Sometimes it got pretty rough," Leasca remembered. "It was a long voyage like an ocean cruiser. I saw porpoises and sights I'd never seen before."

He pointed out the World War II naval historian Samuel Eliot Morrison described LSTs as "the most useful all-around craft invented by the Navy."

As time passes and veterans of amphibious craft fade away, Leasca "wants to do everything I can for the ungainly ships and the men who sailed them into combat.

"I want to do something for all the vets of America," he said. "And I want to give recognition to a glamorous ship. Too often, historians don't mention the LSTs. So we've got to toot our own horn to get recognition."

For more information about the Amphibious Veterans of Massachusetts, visit www.amphibvetsofma.org.

To read to read the text of House Resolution 1316 and to check on its status, go to the Library Congress Web site, http://thomas.loc.gov, and type in H. Res. 1316 in the search engine.

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